7 Smart Solutions To Improve Your Customer Experience
Around 50% of customers will switch to a competitor after having 1 bad support experience. Losing half of your buyers can be detrimental for any business. After having more than 1 negative experience, 80% of customers will jump ship and buy from someone else.
With these percentages, there truly is not much room to not give the best customer experience possible.
We have compiled a list with our top tips to improve your customer experience and grow your customer loyalty.
1. Empower Your Employees
The best place to start with improving your customer experience is by empowering your employees. Believe it or not, happy customers are correlated with empowered employees. The reason is that when your customers need help or assistance, an empowered employee will be able to help them vs having to make your customer wait for a manager.
Think about your own experience when you contact a company to resolve an issue. You are a lot happier and more satisfied when that agent takes care of your issue without putting you on hold and better yet, without making you wait to transfer you to a manager.
2. Technology Is Your Friend
In today’s technology filled world, it is a smart move to use tech to help create breakthrough customer experiences. Using 24/7 chatbots, managed mobility services, and natural language processing are perfect examples of improving your time-to-insights and creating new levels of personalization.
Machine learning is a perfect way to offer 24/7 customer experience and increase relevance. When you use technology you can have your human employees handle the more complex situations that come. Make sure that when you use technology you make it easy for customers to escalate and receive help when they need it instead of going around in circles with a machine.
3. Personalization
Customers love it when a brand understands them. You want to invest in ensuring that the experience for your customers adapts based on what you know about the customer. This adaptation will help strengthen the bond you have between your brand and client.
You can use geolocation technology to personalize the experience based on where your customer is. Another way to personalize the experience is to follow up with survey responses. You can also use the data you already have to personalize survey questions.
Think about Netflix and other streaming companies that use your viewing history to learn about you and recommend shows and movies based on what you have watched in the past. This is a perfect example of personalization.
4. Listen to Feedback
Asking for feedback and listening to what customers say is another way to improve the customer experience. If the feedback you receive is in line with the end goals you have for your company, act on this as soon as possible.
The faster you act on feedback after receiving it, the more you will show customers that took the time to take your survey or leave feedback that your business listens to what they have to say.
5. Implement a Loyalty Rewards Program
Because most buying decisions are emotionally charged, you want to appeal to their emotions. Setting up a loyalty rewards program is going to increase your brand support because they will look forward to receiving the incentives that you offer.
When a customer is granted with a reward they feel valued and validated. The more exciting the benefits are the stronger the bond between your brand and customer will grow.
6. Commit to Outstanding Customer Service
This shouldn’t be an option, providing the best customer service possible when a customer needs helps should be at the top of the list for everyone within your company. A customer wants to feel like your business cares about them and that they matter as a customer.
Do not be like other companies that develop corporate-focused service instead of client-focused service. The better your customer service is, the more your customers will continue buying from and will speak positively about your company’s customer service.
Keep in mind that people are not only buying from you because you have the product they need, they are also buying from your company because they feel they will get the support they need. Take the time to hire the best employees possible and train them to provide the service that you want your customers to receive. Make sure you also coach them every few months to ensure that they are not missing the mark.
A popular way to increase customer service is to close the loop with customers. This means that when they contact your company the outcome should always be positive and the issue resolved so that they don’t have to call back or contact the company again.
Closing the loop means that the representative helping the customer needs to understand what the customer is asking for. Keep this in mind when you are training employees because if they don’t truly take the time to listen and understand it will increase the chances of the customer calling back.
7. Lower Waiting Times
The average person does not like waiting around for help. Most of the time customers expect to receive help immediately because they are usually a bit frustrated to begin with unless they have a general question.
Take the time to create and implement a system that allows your customers to receive help as soon as possible. One technique is to have someone always available to answer the phone and transfer the call to the best representative based on the issue or question.
Ready to Level Up Your Customer Experience?
Now that you learned our top tips to improve your customer experience, it is time to take action. Apply what you learned above and watch your customer base become more loyal. The happier your customers are the more they will tell their friends and family about your company, which will increase your sales.
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